News brands Medienhaus Aachen
Aachener Zeitung
Zeitung am Sonntag
Daily reach
308.293 people
1 in residents
residents within the Heinsberg, Düren and Aachen distribution area
Number of subscribers
74,183
86% print
14% digital
Revenue
79.6 million euros
Integration of Medienhaus Aachen in Mediahuis group
For Medienhaus Aachen, 2022 was dominated by its integration within the Mediahuis group and the acceleration of its digital transformation. A strong consensus on the strategic direction – growing the digital business more quickly and efficiently – made it easy to set up six workstreams and build motivated cross-border teams. They began work within specific focus areas such as optimising the print portfolio, determining the requirements for further digital acceleration, evaluating the economic potential of free door-to-door newspapers and aligning technology.
Medienhaus Aachen was able to make maximum use of the network, knowledge and experience of Mediahuis. While some workstreams resulted in clear, tangible project plans, others were more open-ended and focused on getting to know each other and sharing business practices.
Meanwhile, the integration workstreams were officially closed. Some objectives and projects became part of day-to-day business and were incorporated into the strategic projects of Medienhaus Aachen. The integration may be complete, but the actual work has only just begun.
Open communication is key in Medienhaus Aachen’s new offices
In August, Medienhaus Aachen moved into a new office complex erected right in front of its former buildings. The departments are on the first and second floors, and are mainly arranged without partitions or separate offices. The basic principle is that every employee can freely choose where they work, while the open-plan space aims to maximise transparent communication between colleagues and departments.
As people now regularly work from home for part of the week, a maximum occupancy of 70% was taken into account when positioning workstations.
A large event space on the ground floor hosts information sessions, staff meetings, forums and debates. Staff members have been very positive about the first few months in the new building.
Medienhaus Aachen opts for single brand strategy
At the end of 2022, Medienhaus Aachen decided to merge its two newspaper titles. Subscribers to the Aachener Nachrichten now find their paper under a new but familiar name: Aachener Zeitung. Both titles had been produced by one joint editorial team since 2003.
While the number of digital customers was growing steadily, the number of print subscribers had fallen to a level where the separate production of two print newspapers was no longer a sustainable option.
Readers of both titles were informed of the changes via an accompanying campaign. As the papers were almost identical in content and were essentially distinguishable only by their names and brand colours of blue and yellow, readers were not surprised by the move.
In parallel with the print editions, the digital editions were merged on www.aachener-zeitung.de. This merger resulted in a greater visibility for the titles’ journalism.
The experience of Mediahuis Limburg was particularly valuable during the process of merging the Aachener Zeitung and Aachener Nachrichten. The company went through a similar process a few years ago.
Editing and coordination Maud Dekker, Frank Jaspers, An Steylemans Final editing Sally Tipper
Photography Management Committee Lars van den Brink
Graphics Pepijn Barnard
Graphic design Nandan Lemmers, Yannick Mortier Art direction Anne-Marije Vendeville | www.mediahuis.com | 2023
